Enhanced Oxygen Reduction with Ethanol Tolerant Ni-Te Nanoparticles on Carbon Support Through Vapour-Solid Preparation

Author(s)
Daniel Garstenauer, Ondřej Zobač, Franz Jirsa, Freddy Kleitz, Klaus W. Richter
Abstract

Recent endeavours to promote the widespread use of renewable and sustainable energy technologies depend heavily on the development and design of new catalytic materials. In this context, intermetallic compounds have come into the spotlight of recent research as a promising material class to tune the catalytic properties and stability for various uses. In this work, vapour–solid synthesis is highlighted as an outstanding method for its control over the composition and crystal structure of prepared intermetallic nanoparticles. Carbon black-supported nickel-telluride nanoparticles of different compositions and crystallographic structures have been synthesised and investigated regarding their oxygen reduction reaction performance in alkaline media. The relation between catalytic activity and ethanol tolerance depending on the various intermetallic phases has been investigated. The addition of tellurium into nickel-based nanoparticles allowed a two-fold increase of the mass activity from 43.6 A gNi−1 for Ni/C to 88.5 A gNi−1 for Ni-Te/C. Onset and half-wave potentials were comparable to commercial Pt/C benchmark catalyst. Furthermore, chronoamperometric testing showed that the ethanol-tolerant Ni-Te/C catalysts were stable under electrocatalytic conditions during in alkaline media. The trend in catalytic activity of the Ni-Te phases was followed the order: Ni3Te2 > NiTe > NiTe2−x > Ni.

Organisation(s)
Department of Functional Materials and Catalysis, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Core Facility Crystal Structure Analysis
External organisation(s)
Vienna Doctoral School in Chemistry (DoSChem), Czech Academy of Sciences
Journal
Catalysts : open access journal
Volume
15
ISSN
2073-4344
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/catal15040368
Publication date
04-2025
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
104008 Catalysis, 104005 Electrochemistry, 205004 Functional materials
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4bf0b5ef-d685-48a3-994f-dc8426c2a88a